In many surgical procedures, body vessels, e.g., blood vessels, ducts, adhesions, fallopian tubes, etc. . . . are sealed to defunctionalize or close the vessel. Traditionally, staples, clips or sutures have been used to close a body vessel. However, these traditional procedures often leave foreign body material inside a patient. In an effort to reduce foreign body material left within the patient and to more effectively seal the body vessel, energy techniques that seal by heat processes have been employed. The present disclosure include apparatus and methods that combine applying a force to greatly compress the target tissue as well as applying energy such that collagen will melt and reform in a permanently compressed state.
Current vessel sealing procedures utilize heat treatment in the form of radio frequency (RF) energy in the frequency range of 200 to 1000 kHz to heat and desiccate tissue causing closure and sealing of the body vessel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,006 discloses electrosurgical bipolar RF forceps which cauterize blood vessels during a percutaneous laparoscopic cholecystectomy procedure.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus which provides a uniform, controllable seal and that is capable of providing such a seal with minimum collateral damage to body tissue.